ProjectAbstract Scismic Job Seeker is a Match.com for scientific hiring. In identifying the need to improve workforce engagement in the life sciences, Scismic built an automated job-matching platform tailored for the biotech industry. Designed, developed, and now deployed by scientists for scientists, its skills-matching technology is unique and addresses key evaluation criteria in assessing candidates as required by recruiters. Therefore, Scismic saves biotech companies time and money, and optimizes productivity by enabling scientists to find workplacestheythrivein.Scismicaimstofosterengagementanddriveinnovationinthelifesciencesindustry. Racialdiversity,akeycontributingfactortoorganizationalproductivityandinnovation,isseverelylackinginthe biotechworkforce.Paststudieshaveshownthattraditionalrecruitingpracticescreatebarriersforcandidatesof underrepresented backgrounds. As a technology platform with algorithms that compute automated candidate evaluations, Scismic Job Seeker?s matching system reduces human biases in the candidate evaluation process. Additionally, Scismic has developed two new independent diversity-promoting features, 1) biographical information blinding (BIB) and 2) enhanced written evaluation (EWE). The specific aims of this SBIRPhaseIapplicationare1)todemonstratetheefficacyofScismicJobSeeker?sBIBfeatureingenerating raciallydiversecandidateshortlistsand2)todeterminetheefficacyofScismicJobSeeker?sEWEindelaying the introduction of human bias in the recruiting process. In the proposed studies, Scismic will 1) determine whether two screening features, the BIB and the EWE, result in more underrepresented candidates being moved forward, 2) understand the correlation between the racial diversity of candidate pools before and after Scismic Job Seeker+BIB-screens, and 3) establish whether the EWE can replace the phone screen and further delaytheintroductionofhumanbiaspriortotheinterviewstage.Theresultsoftheproposedstudywillenable Scismic to further optimize and improve the BIB and/or the EWE for integration into the Scismic Job Seeker platform.Ifoneorbothofthesefeaturesdemonstratetheabilitytogeneratemorediversecandidateselections thanthoseofhumanrecruiters,thesefeature(s)willbeimprovedandintegratedintoJobSeeker?splatformfor commercializationintheSBIRPhaseIIapplication.Inaddition,biopharmaceuticalcompanieshaveexpressed tremendous interest in piloting Scismic Job Seeker+BIB+EWE alongside their current recruiting practices. By providing the only widely accessible and scalable platform addressing diversitylife science recruiting, Scismic JobSeekercanfurtherincreasetherapeuticinnovationinthebiotechindustry.Inthelong-term,Scismicseeks to accelerate research innovations worldwide by enriching the biotech workforce with new perspectives from previouslyexcludedscientists.